Buckethead Flashbacks – Bonnaroo 2002: The Debut of C2B3 (June 22nd, 2002)
Good evening everybody, in today's Buckethead flashback we're going back to 2002 for the debut performance of a band that Buckethead played with more times than he did with both Guns N Roses and Praxis, Colonel Claypools Bucket of Bernie Brains. So, let's begin. Woo!!
On June 22nd 2002 at the very first Bonnaroo festival in Manchester Tennessee, the band of Buckethead, Brain, Bernie Worrell and Bill Laswell were meant to perform as 'Praxis'. However, for unknown reasons Bill Laswell wasn't able to take to the stage that day, so up stepped Primus front-man Les Claypool.
Claypool was there to perform with his own side project, but having known and performed with Buckethead, Brain & Bernie for several years, they joined forces, and Colonel Claypools Bucket of Bernie Brains, also known as C2B3, was born.
And because the performance was not planned or rehearsed, the entire set was done completely on the fly, with Les Claypool saying “we just showed up and started playing. It was completely improvised. We didn't even know what key we were going to be in from moment to moment. We went in there and started throwing pasta at the walls, and it turned out great”.
You damn right it did. And it would've never happened if not for Bill Laswell pulling out, and a certain Axl Rose.
At the time both Buckethead & Brain were members of Guns N Roses and on the very same day they performed at Bonnaroo they were meant to be performing as GnR in Switzerland. However just a few months prior Guns N Roses canceled their tour. So one bands loss was another bands gain.
With the positive response from the excellent show, talks of the band making an album started, however Axl once again got the band together for a rescheduled tour, that included the now infamous stop at the VMA awards, which, happened 2 months after Bonnaroo.
Shortly after this when asked about the potential album, Claypool said “If Buckethead & Brain weren't committed to another project I'd probably put more time into it. But I'm just not interested being in a situation where my tour schedule or release schedule is dictated by someone else”.
Well, the dictator would later cancel another tour, freeing up Brain & Buckethead, with Buckethead also choosing to leave GNR, giving C2B3 the opportunity to record their album 'Big Eyeball in the Sky' released September 2004, just over 2 years after their debut.
And it all happened because of an unplanned coming together at Bonnaroo, born out of a random sequence of events. Glorious.